ישעיהו, פרק כ״ז, פסוק י״ב

A vivid prophecy of future redemption uses the familiar rhythms of agriculture to illustrate how the Israelites will be carefully separated from the surrounding nations and returned to their homeland.

The process begins with an action resembling beating with a stick. Commentators offer different agricultural parallels to explain this imagery. One approach views it as the beating of grain stalks to separate the wheat from the chaff. In this scenario, God will gently and precisely extract the Israelites, representing the wheat, from the nations of their exile, representing the chaff, using a simple stick rather than heavy threshing tools [מלבי״ם, מצודת דוד, אבן עזרא, אברבנאל]. Another perspective compares the action to striking the branches of an olive tree. This causes the finest fruit to fall to the ground so it can be gathered, while the branches and waste are left behind [רש״י, שד״ל, ביאור שטיינזלץ]. Some merge these two images, seeing them both as powerful illustrations of separating the good from the bad [רד״ק].

This gathering spans a vast geographic area, beginning from a powerful river current [מצודת ציון, מלבי״ם, אברבנאל]. The primary approach among commentators identifies this as the Euphrates River in Assyria [רש״י, מצודת דוד, שד״ל], or the exact meeting point of the Euphrates and the Tigris [ביאור שטיינזלץ]. Alternatively, some identify it as the Sambation River, the legendary boundary where the Ten Tribes were exiled [רד״ק, אברבנאל]. The gathering reaches all the way to the stream of Egypt, understood to be the Nile [רש״י, ביאור שטיינזלץ]. These landmarks are not meant to describe an expansion of the borders of the Land of Israel. Rather, they highlight the distant corners where the Israelites were lost and cast away, from the depths of Assyria to Egypt, showing exactly where they will be recovered [שד״ל].

Following this initial separation, the scattered people will be collected individually, one by one [מלבי״ם, רד״ק]. This careful gathering is understood in several ways. On one hand, it points to the long and harsh nature of the exile, which will leave only a few survivors out of many, requiring them to be gathered as solitary individuals [אבן עזרא, אברבנאל]. On the other hand, it is seen as a profound expression of God's personal care and honor. In this view, anyone who finds an exiled Jew will respectfully bring Him as an offering to Jerusalem [רש״י, מצודת דוד]. A deeper conceptual layer connects this individual gathering to the social repair of the nation. Because the exile was originally caused by senseless hatred and internal conflict, the ultimate redemption depends on the people reuniting in love. Joining together one by one in complete harmony will itself become the reason for the redeemer to arrive [אהבת יהונתן].